Bad weather spoils vintners' arrival party

There was supposed to be rousing music from the Gulf Coast High School band.

Even Mayor Bill Barnett was supposed to be on hand at Naples Municipal Airport to welcome two jet-loads of vintners flying in Thursday afternoon from Napa, Calif.

But it was not to be.

The 3:30 p.m. welcome reception for the VIP vintners, who were scheduled to be in town for tonight's Naples Winter Wine Festival, was canceled because of weather, said Dawn Montecalvo, executive director of the Naples Children & Education Foundation, which founded the wine festival.

"There was heavy fog in Napa and they couldn't take off," Montecalvo said. "Due to the weather, the airport couldn't release the planes for safety reasons. It had nothing to do with our weather here."

The planes were grounded for about four hours Thursday because of the fog and low clouds, so the vintners all went out for breakfast while they waited, Montecalvo said. Around 3 p.m. in Naples, a half-hour before they were originally scheduled to land, the weather in California began to clear, she said.

"As soon as the fog opened, they got one (plane) out," Montecalvo said. "Ten minutes later, they got the other one out."

Because of the delay, the reception had to be scratched, which wasn't all bad news for the airport, airport spokeswoman AnneElena Foster said.

"It's certainly easier to not have 200 people show up at the airport to greet their guests," she said. "But we are the Naples airport and we serve Naples, and we were ready to accommodate."

Instead of having a welcome reception, Montecalvo said the vintners would be whisked away from the airport in their waiting cars and taken directly to their party at the Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort.